Over the years, electrical control panel and wiring schematic designs have been incorporated into many tools, equipment, and machinery. These electrical control panels are often customized to minimize the size of the panel while maximizing connectivity within the panel. A metal rail has been used for mounting circuit breakers and other electrical equipment within the control panels. The metal rail has been standardized and the Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) is believed to have first published specifications for a standardized metal rail. The industry commonly refers to a standard electrical control panel mounting rail as “DIN rail.” The DIN rail is a standard profile common to most manufacturers and is used extensively in industrial control panels as the primary mounting method for components (relays, circuit breakers, terminals, etc.). The cross-section profile of the DIN rail is formed in metal machines and shipped to consumers or electrical control panel manufacturers, in two meter standard lengths or blanks. The blanks must then be cut to a desired length for mounting in specific locations within the panel.
Various methods have been devised to cut the metal DIN rail to a desired length. Typically, the DIN rail is manually cut or manually fed into a cutting mechanism. When a part list is provided, the cutting requires individual measurement and the additional handling of the DIN rail consumes time and requires additional labor. The shortcomings of manual assembly may be overcome with the use of a programmable interface, however, even a programmable interface requires manual input of individual blanks into the interface.